Limon Secures Bail: RAB Case

Limon Secures Bail
The High Court has granted a six-month bail to Limon Hossain, who has been behind bars in a case filed by the Rapid Action Battalion.

The bench of justices Nazrul Islam and Anwarul Haque approved the ad-interim bail on Thursday upon plea from the legal aid organisation Ain O Shalish Kendra.

The court also asked the government to explain why a judicial commission should not be formed to look into the so-called shootout in which the college student from Jhalakathi was lost in the leg by the paramilitary personnel on Mar 23.

The court, at the same time, asked why Limon should not be permanently granted bail.

The government has two weeks to respond to the court.

On Wednesday, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Mizanur Rahman questioned the lower court's sending to jail Limon.

He also questioned the late-night release of the adolescent boy from Dhaka's National Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedics.

"Limon is an adolescent boy. Can he be sent directly to the jail?"

"If yes, under which section of the law? These are now the questions. Not only the NHRC, the entire nation wants to know it," he said.

The NHRC chief also wondered how the hospital authorities had released a patient like Limon at night and why his release order had been handed to police.

Jhalakati senior judicial magistrate Nusrat Jahan on Tuesday night put Limon behind bars after hearing a petition filed by police against him under the arms act.

She ordered authorities to take him to jail and instructed the jail authorities to ensure his treatment.

Limon was later admitted to the prison cell at Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) in Barisal.

He had been sent to Barisal Central Jail and then to SBMCH from the Jhalakati Central Jail around midnight on Tuesday.

The Barisal Central Jail authorities had received Limon around 2:15am on Wednesday and sent him to the SBMCH prison cell.

On Tuesday, he was taken before the Jhalakati sessions judge for hearing on a bail petition in the same case.

Judge Faruk Ahmed fixed May 9 for next hearing. Prior to that, Rajapur police sub-inspector Ariful Islam and three other policemen escorted him from Pongu Hospital to Jhalakati.

His father Tofajjal Hossain also accompanied him.

On Monday, Limon was granted bail on a bond of Tk 10,000 in a case filed for 'obstructing government duty, making attempts to murder and injuring RAB personnel'.

Limon's mother, Henuara Begum, also filed an attempt-to-murder case against six RAB-8 men and six unidentified people.

Police submitted charge sheet in the case under arms act last week claiming that Limon is a member of 'Mizan-Morshed' gang. Charges were brought against him under the Juvenile Crimes Act.

A RAB team reportedly shot Limon, who used to work in a brick kiln, in the leg after taking him to a place adjacent to his house at Jamaddarhat in Rajapur Upazila of Jhalakati on Mar 23, less than a fortnight before his Higher Secondary Certificate examinations were to begin.

When the matter drew widespread criticism, RAB director general Mokhlesur Rahman on Apr 11 said Limon might be an innocent victim.